Napoleon Crowns Himself King of Italy

Napoleon crowned himself King of Italy at the Cathedral of Milan on March 17, 1805, placing the Iron Crown of Lombardy on his own head and declaring, 'God gives it to me; woe to him who touches it.' The Iron Crown, said to contain a nail from the True Cross, had been used to crown Lombard kings for centuries. Napoleon's assumption of the Italian title converted the Italian Republic, which he had led as president since 1802, into a hereditary kingdom under direct French control. He appointed his stepson Eugene de Beauharnais as Viceroy to administer the territory. The coronation alarmed Austria, Russia, and Britain, who saw it as further proof that Napoleon intended to dominate all of Europe. Within months, the Third Coalition formed against France. Napoleon's Italian adventure also planted the seeds of Italian nationalism: the experience of unified administration under French rule gave Italians their first taste of a single state, an idea that would drive the Risorgimento and eventual unification in 1861.